The New completes and fulfils the Old

Pentecost Sunday 2021

Everyone knows that Pentecost is a Christian festival which marks the descent of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. But before it became a Christian festival, just like Easter, the day was celebrated as an important festival by the Jews. Pentecost or Shavuot as it was called by the Jews, was one of three important pilgrimage festivals.

When the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing, the Jews were expected to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem three times a year. All three festivals were connected to the foundational event of the Exodus. Sukkot, or the Feast of the Booths which was also the autumn harvest festival, commemorated the forty years that Israel journeyed in the wilderness; Pesach or the Passover, commemorated Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their newfound freedom from slavery; and Shavuot, the spring harvest festival, falls fifty days after Passover and commemorates the giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai.

Pentecost being one of the three pilgrimage festivals would explain the crowds which had gathered in that city on that day, and how 3,000 men were present to listen to St Peter’s sermon and be converted. The idea that so many people were drawn to the city of Jerusalem becomes a prefiguration of the pilgrimage of the Church on earth, as she makes her way to heaven. So, notice how St Luke alters the orientation and destination. The earthly Jerusalem which was the destination of this pilgrimage will instead become the launchpad for the Church’s mission. Instead of making our way to the earthly Jerusalem, as Christians we are to heed the call to take the message of Christ to “all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Although the agricultural aspect of Shavuot concerns mainly the spring harvest, it also marks the beginning of the birth of new fruits of the land, and those fruits were brought to the Temple at Shavuot. The book of Deuteronomy names these first fruits, called bikkurim in Hebrew. In Deut. 8:7–10, seven “fruits of the land” are identified as gifts from God to the people of Israel, which were promised in abundance as a reward for their settling in the land God has given them: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. Seven fruits? I know that your Catholic senses are tingling at the familiarity of that number.

For Christians, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, first given to Christians in baptism and strengthened in confirmation—especially, at confirmation, is to prepare the Christian to share the gospel. The Holy Spirit brings gifts and fruits. “The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord…They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations. . . . The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity” (CCC 1831-1832). So, the first fruits of Shavuot are a prefiguration of the spiritual fruits and gifts which are given to us in order that we may use them in service of God.

Shavuot also commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. You may recall that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai into the camp of the Israelites, he had found the people in apostasy. They had given up on him and on God and had created for themselves a new god: a golden calf. God was furious and wanted to wipe them out, but Moses interceded. Moses himself was enraged and exacted punishment on the people. According to Exod. 32:25–28, Moses in his anger ordered the priestly tribe, the sons of Aaron, to massacre those who had committed this abhorrent act of idolatry. Three thousand men were slaughtered on that day. But on Pentecost, three thousand men after having listened to St Peter’s inaugural sermon were struck to the heart and chose to be baptised on that day. Coincidence? No. Providence? Yes. Three thousand were killed at the first Pentecost at Mount Sinai; at the New Pentecost, 3,000 were not only restored but in a real sense, were brought back to life.

But there is one last point where we see how the Christian Pentecost completes the Jewish Shavuot. As God gave His Law to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, at this Pentecost He would give His people His Holy Spirit; in the former event, the Law would be written on stone tablets but in the second event, the Law will now be written in the hearts of the people. Pentecost is the new Sinai; the Holy Spirit is the New Covenant. And so on this day, we see the fulfilment of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel: “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts” (Jer 31:33). And in the prophet Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ez 36:26-27).

The New Pentecost completes and fulfils the old. Saint Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church, once observed with uncanny precision: “the New (Testament) lies hidden in the Old and the Old (Testament) is unveiled in the New.” God in His unfathomable wisdom had already prepared His Church for her birth on this special day. What the Israelites and the Jews had celebrated for centuries was merely a pale shadow of what is to come. If once a nation had been born through their experience of the Exodus, commemorated each year by feasts of the Passover, Shavuot and Sukkoth, the Church of Christ now celebrates her birth through the death and resurrection of the Lord at Easter, and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And as Israel was called to be a sign to the nations of God’s authority and sovereignty, the Church is now called to make disciples of the Lord of all the nations. Let our revelry be translated into mission!  “Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.”